The Courant — Preventing gun violence a public health imperative
On Monday it was the Navy Yard shooting, and nine months ago it was the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. Twenty-six innocent lives were ended last December because of a senseless act of violence. It is hard to understand why Congress has still failed to move forward on comprehensive firearm violence legislation. As Congress delays action, more communities bear witness to an ongoing stream of firearm violence. In the U.S., there are more than 19,000 firearm suicides and 11,000 firearm homicides each year. Unless meaningful action is taken, this epidemic will continue unabated.

POLITICO — House might nix Obamacare subsidies in CR
House GOP leaders are warning they may not simply just take up a continuing resolution funding government operations if Senate Democrats strip out language defunding Obamacare. Instead, House Republicans could either sit on the bill — which is unlikely, as that would lead to a government shutdown — or insert other, more onerous provisions into the $986 billion continuing resolution or CR, and then send that revised package back to the Senate.

CNN — No safety in guns on country level, study finds
Guns don’t make a nation safer. That’s the conclusion of a study that found a strong correlation between gun ownership rates and the risk of death by firearms in more than a dozen developed countries. The United States and Japan were on opposite extremes of the scale of gun ownership, with 88.8 guns per 100 Americans and 0.6 guns per 100 Japanese. They were also on opposite extremes for firearm-related deaths — 10.2 deaths per 100,000 people in the United States versus 0.06 per 100,000 in Japan. Britain’s death rate was also low, at 0.25 per 100,000.

Washington Post — On superbugs, the CDC sounds an alarm
When Dr. Tom Frieden starts using phrases such as “urgent health threat” and “potentially catastrophic consequences,” it is a good idea to pay attention. Dr. Frieden is director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and with those words Monday he introduced a new report that documents the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance, in which bacteria are becoming untreatable by known antibiotics. The report says 2 million people in the United States are sickened every year with antibiotic-resistant infections, with at least 23,000 dying as a result. The global toll is certainly much higher.

Science World Report — E-readers make reading easier for students with dyslexia
E-readers continue to grow in popularity as people download books to read on their handheld devices. Now, scientists have found that these electronics aren’t just convenient; they’re also easier to read. They’ve discovered that some people with dyslexia can read more easily, quickly and with greater comprehension when using an e-reader than when using a book.